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I was like that until I was about 25 and stopped doing sports everyday. Still, I'm 36, I eat a LOT and not really well and I'm 6'1" and 185lbs, which isn't too bad. I always though my capacity for remaining relatively thin came in part from the fact I never ever drink soft drink, milk, juice, stuff like Gatorade, and Red Bull and the likes. I drink water (a lot of) and a little bit of coffee, tea, beer and wine.

I am 24, just like Chris Sale. I've noticed that my once superb metabolism is slowly giving way to a few extra lbs. This has been exacerbated by my new desk job after having more physically demanding jobs in the past.

It will catch up to Chris Sale. And at 6'6" he has a lot more room to grow than I do. He'd better keep up with his workout regimen.

But what really left teammates in awe of Sale was his performance on a charter flight to California. In a four-hour masterpiece, Sale packed two ice cream sundaes and, by one teammate’s estimate, around 30 bags of potato chips into one of the skinniest bodies the sport has ever seen.

Bah, Wade Boggs is not impressed. Call him when Sale's teammates marvel over him putting down a couple of 30-racks on one cross country flight.

I once ate two Large Papa John's pizzas (crust and all) in one sitting. A friend and I had ordered the pizzas because we were drunk and by the time they arrived he had passed out. I didn't want to see the food go to waste. Probably my most impressive eating performance and definitely more impressive (IMHO) than two sundaes and 30 bags of chips.

I think in 7th or 8th grade I weighed 76 pounds or so (I remember that from the weigh in for wrestling in gym class) and graduated high school weighing something like 122 pounds. Around 23 I weighed 156 pounds but then my metabolism started to change and I became more sedantary. Weighed between 190 to 195 from ages 29 to 33 or so. Got it down to 170 or so when I changed jobs but after a couple of years and another change of jobs I'm up to about 182 or so. I walk to and from work everyday now to stay active. Had to stop buying the pound of brownies from the store as well as the ice cream, raw cookie dough, and candy. Cut out soda a long time ago. If I'm somewhat active I can eat virtually anything without gaining weight and if I'm busy I usually lose weight.

Activity burns calories, which increases your metabolism, which burns calories, which increases your metabolism, etc. Granted, you have a base function to work with, but if you get out and do ####, eat more better and don't sit in front of electronic screens all day (he says while typing on a laptop) you'll lose weight.

You might consider a boot camp to get start. Perhaps a "chase Chris Sale down and beat him to death with your bare hands" boot camp.

On the subject of folks who have to work to gain weight - i.e. skinny kids - as a fat kid it never occurred to me that you guys were self conscious and hated yourself too. I'm glad it wasn't just us fatties.

Ten years ago I was in a stressful administrative job and I hit 222 pounds – I didn't look fat (I'm 6'1") but I could feel it, and I'd gone up 3 inches in waist size; I was uncomfortable. Started walking like a madman and eating less, and lost 30 pounds; then last year stresses accumulated and I gained 15 of them back, and have just gone through losing them again. Never-ending vigilance, in other words: you'd think it would be easy to maintain a comfortable weight, but I can't seem to get much below 190 or even stay there without being perpetually hungry. White people's problems :)

Chris Sale is 24 years old and a professional athlete; it'd be more surprising if he DID get fat easily. At that age among elite athletes, the Pablo Sandovals of the world are the exception rather than the rule.

Andy's actually right in this thread; maintaining weight just takes some character.

Never-ending vigilance, in other words: you'd think it would be easy to maintain a comfortable weight

I worked myself into shape around age 30 and stayed nice and trim by exercising a lot and eating really well. Then on my 40th birthday I broke my left foot, then tore my right calf two days later. In an extremely short period of time I put on 25 pounds, which made it harder fix my legs, which made losing weight harder, and so on.

Point is that I hope that Chris Sale turns into a fat #### and has to spend his 30s subsisting on celery and water.

I can remember when I was in high school, and I'd go to McDonald's and eat a Quarter Pounder With Cheese plus another cheeseburger, as well as fries and a Coke, or I'd eat a bag of Doritos while my Tombstone Pizza was in the oven, then I'd eat the whole Tombstone Pizza. And I still couldn't get my weight much above 130 pounds. Man, those were the days.

Unlikely he has some special metabolism and more likely he just moves more than others, thus burning more calories. Also, pretty sure most skinny people underestimate their caloric intake, while fat overestimate. People just like to use metabolism as an excuse because it's something out of their hands, but in reality the vast majority aren't unique snowflakes.

When I was in college, I'd have dinner, study for a few hours, go for a 4-5 mile run around 11:00 PM, then order a medium pizza, and polish off the whole thing while studying (or playing video games) until 1:00 or 2:00.

Like others, my metabolism also slowed down around age 30. I've put on 20 pounds (up to 170) in the five years since then.

Unlikely he has some special metabolism and more likely he just moves more than others, thus burning more calories. Also, pretty sure most skinny people underestimate their caloric intake, while fat overestimate. People just like to use metabolism as an excuse because it's something out of their hands, but in reality the vast majority aren't unique snowflakes.

Yes, he surely moves a lot more than all his teammates who are all amazed at his metabolism.

A guy of Sale's age and size is going to burn a hair over 2000 calories a day just sitting on the couch. If he's a bit animated and if he's at all serious about his training then another ~2000 calories a day seem likely without any trouble at all.

If he actually ate 30 bags of potato chips and two sundaes, that's 4480 calories (assuming the little bags of Lays and McDonald's sundaes with peanuts).

Sale's young, he's tall, and he's a professional athlete. Calorie counts don't mean to him what they mean to most of the rest of us. The key to the epic performance mentioned in the article is that it was unusual. If he did that all of the time then even he would put on weight. But he can do it occasionally, and eat a ton all of the time, and not gain a lot.

Looking at Sale's build, it is in fact very likely he has a high metabolism. Correct that the vast majority are not unique snowflakes, but I think there's a lot of evidence in Sale's case that he is one. I mean how many people are actually built like Sale or Justin Verlander? A ridiculously tall, ridiculously lean, high level professional athlete is about as likely to have a spiked metabolism as anyone.

We rarely talk White Sox here so I just want to point out how awesome Chris Sale is, he's out of the national spotlight but look at his body of work so far, well in advance of his 25th birthday:

350.1 ip, 364 K, 103 BB and a 1.088 WHIP

Some of that is as a reliever (about 1/3) but it's good enough for a a ERA+ of 154 and an xFIP of 3.16.

His last two starts against the Angels were absolute dominance. The slider he had against them in his last start was freezing guys like Trout and Pujols time and time again on the black. Combine that with a strange, 6-6 tall delivery from the left side, a 95mph heater, and a solid changeup and you have a top 10 starter in MLB.

Take in less calories and/or burn more. Best bet is to go after low hanging fruit; stop drinking unnecessary calories (beer is necessary, don't worry). Cut out all soft drinks (including diet ones), don't put sugar or cream in your coffee/tea, drink skim or 1% if you must drink milk, and don't drink fruit juices; you're better off just eating the fruit. Limit liquids to water, coffee/tea, and life-sustaining booze.

Exercising more is great for your fitness, but it may also make you hungry, which will make you want to eat more, which will cancel out the calories you burnt exercising. Nobody said this would be easy. Try to fight this by eating small, frequent snacks of things like greek yogurt, apples, or raw almonds; they'll all contribute to satiety and curb hunger pangs.

Also ignore weigh ins once you get started. A good training program builds muscle to replace the fat.

Also true. Weight is a number and that number doesn't necessarily correlate to fitness. Depending on your body type and fitness program, you may wind up gaining weight but looking much, much, MUCH better with your shirt off. Focus on how you feel and how your body looks; don't pay too much attention to the number on the scale.

#21 When Doug Gilmour was playing there used to be stories about his trying to keep his playing weight up as the season wore on. He wasn't very big or heavy to begin with but as the season wore on it was a constant battle to stay within 10 pounds of his listed weight.

Also true. Weight is a number and that number doesn't necessarily correlate to fitness. Depending on your body type and fitness program, you may wind up gaining weight but looking much, much, MUCH better with your shirt off. Focus on how you feel and how your body looks; don't pay too much attention to the number on the scale.

You see, I don't really care about fitness; I just don't want to look fat. And the only people who see me with my shirt off (my wife and my doctor) don't care.

You see, I don't really care about fitness; I just don't want to look fat. And the only people who see me with my shirt off (my wife and my doctor) don't care.

That's a dumb life decision, but fair enough. If looking less fat is your only concern, just cut down on your calorie intake and don't change anything else. The end result will be a horrifying look that I like to call "spindly-flabby," but you'll look less fat as long as you remain covered up.

I've had 7 surgeries in 5 years; 5 of them for a recurring condition. I'm looking to decrease my life expectancy, not increase it.

If looking less fat is your only concern, just cut down on your calorie intake and don't change anything else. The end result will be a horrifying look that I like to call "spindly-flabby," but you'll look less fat as long as you remain covered up.

My muscle tone and strength is fine without doing any exercise per se. I just have no endurance at physical tasks.

In the experience of someone close to me, I can say with confidence that the best way to lose weight is to develop a serious autoimmune disease. The kidney failure can be a #####, but the pounds will drop off.

If looking less fat is your only concern, just cut down on your calorie intake and don't change anything else. The end result will be a horrifying look that I like to call "spindly-flabby," but you'll look less fat as long as you remain covered up.

My muscle tone and strength is fine without doing any exercise per se. I just have no endurance at physical tasks.

If you drop a significant amount of weight through caloric restriction without exercising, you will also lose muscle mass.

Actually while not weighing everyday is probably good advice for most people, in this crowd I think it actually could be quite beneficial. If you're good with numbers, weighing everyday actually gives you a better picture of how your weight loss is progressing as long as you smooth out the data to reveal the underlying trend. Knowing that everything is still going in the right direction I think can be quite helpful in maintaining your efforts. At least it has been for me.

+1 on the beer. Beer has calories and induces you to sit around and drink more beer.
I don't drink at all and stay 6'1", 180 at 56. If you want women to hate you, a good way is to be thin and eat like a pig in front of them at the work cafeteria.

I think in 7th or 8th grade I weighed 76 pounds or so (I remember that from the weigh in for wrestling in gym class) and graduated high school weighing something like 122 pounds.

I can do you one better. I was under 60 pounds in seventh grade and barely over in eighth grade. I started college weighing about 110. I'm 5'8". Considering that I gained about 10 pounds eating in the dining halls in my freshman year, I have to think the problem was that the food my parents made just wasn't calorically dense enough, because I ate plenty as a high schooler.

Unfortunately, despite working out a fair amount to try to put on some muscle mass (I had, and still have, almost none), I wasn't able to gain any more weight until I left the dorms and started cooking for myself. A dramatic increase in cheese intake seems to have allowed me to put on a few more pounds, and I've since stabilized at something like 125-130. I still look like a stick, but I finally feel healthy at this weight (witness the 30-mile walk I described in one of the off-topic threads last month).

I wasn't able to gain any more weight until I left the dorms and started cooking for myself. A dramatic increase in cheese intake seems to have allowed me to put on a few more pounds, and I've since stabilized at something like 125-130.

Might I suggest a quart of Carvel soft vanilla, and 4 double whiskies for dessert each night. That should bulk you up in no time.

I exercise at least something daily (50 pushups before the shower), and more than that multiple days per week (elliptical, bicycle, or brisk walk/hike -- I used to run but the knees aren't having it any more). I weigh the same (6'1", 200) that I did 25 years ago (I'm almost 55) and still fit the same size clothes; in fact the only difference now is that my upper body is more muscular.

I don't especially enjoy the exercise, though to be fair I don't mind it. And it's certainly the case that if I miss a few days of exercise, I don't feel nearly as good; I feel weak and soft and I don't sleep as soundly.

But the point is, the primary benefit of keeping fit is that it's the best way to enjoy a particular high-calorie indulgence -- oh, I don't know, like, let's say, alcoholic beverages -- with minimal guilt. Anyway that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

EDIT: Just to be clear, my diet isn't at all like it was a decade or two ago. I stick fairly closely to a low-carb, moderate-fat protocol, with lots and lots of fresh leafy greens. If I ate just the way I wanted to, I'd gain 30 pounds in a heartbeat.

I'll say that I've list a lot if weight doing the weight watchers program. Not the meetings, just counting the points. It's been really easy so far and one thing I've done is daily weigh ins. As Voros notes for me personally just having that ability to track regularly is pretty reaffirming. The skim milk instead of cream thing someone mentioned is a great tip and just the act of tracking your food can be a real eye opener. It really is a great way to just see where you can make cuts easily.

I've tried (not very hard) to quit drinking diet soda. Is it really that bad? (Other than the carcinogenics, which, pfffft...) I mean, it says "diet" right in the name!

I've read some reports that echo what #53 said; diet soda may be able to "trick" your body into thinking it consumed "real" sugars, which can, at the very least, mess up your appetite. Could do worse than that. Even if it doesn't have those effects, it's not as good to drink as water. Just ditch soft drinks in general if you're trying to lose weight or improve your fitness.

My understanding is that the evidence for diet soda causing weight gain is very sketchy at best. This WebMD bit goes into it. I mean, diet soda isn't good for you and there's no reason to keep drinking it, but it's not at all obvious that it'll make you fat.

But the point is, the primary benefit of keeping fit is that it's the best way to enjoy a particular high-calorie indulgence -- oh, I don't know, like, let's say, alcoholic beverages -- with minimal guilt. Anyway that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I became obsessive about working out when it became obvious that if I didn't burn more calories I'd either have to give up drinking or put on weight. For a while I measured my efforts on the elliptical machine not in calories burned but in potential beer gained.

I am about 6'1 and weighed under 175 until I was 36 or so. Then I started exercising every morning to put on some muscle. I put on ~15 pounds of muscle in about a year doing <30 minutes of hindu pushups and squats (no weights) 5 days/week. No steroids either, although I did have big ol protein shakes for a few months there.

At around age 40 I actually put on a few pounts belly fat. Some combination of fewer pushups, less walking up stairs at work (moved from 3rd to 2nd floor and stopped going out twice/day for food & coffee). I cut out 1 costco cookie/daye in the afternoon and 100cal of chips at lunch and dropped back. I am about 185 (age 42) now because I am too lazy to do more than 6 minutes of pushups/day, also my cardio sucked so I am doing them faster and biking to work (2.5 miles one way, whoooo..)

I pretty much eat whatever and however much I want, but it's actually not that much food. I eat only a little breakfast (usually PB&J or bowl of oatmeal with plenty of sugar) and I have to have at least 700 calories for lunch or I get very hungry. I probably eat 1500 cal or so at dinner.

There is nothing wrong with diet soda. That being said, it does tend to give you a sweet tooth, leading you to eat sugary food (which there is also nothing wrong with unless you are diabetic) which tends to not be filling calories, thus overconsumption of calories. The studies people like to bring up against diet soda is when researchers gave rats an insane amount of aspartame, so yes, there are negative effects if you drink a crap ton (think over a case a day). Just like, shocking, overconsumption of any single thing is bad for you, moderation is key.

The irony is great here as you are just puppeting the scare mongering that goes on with it. Try reading the actual studies instead of googling and getting yahoo answer responses and people just throwing their opinion around like its fact. Do you also believe carbs are teh evil? Or that fat is bad for you?

I gotta chuckle at the latest health fad, driven by inane celebrity drivel like from the mouth of GOOP -- gluten free! You know, humans have been eating wheat for a long ####### time, the vast majority of us process gluten perfectly well and cutting it out will have zero benefit on your health except maybe cutting down on excess calories from carbohydrates.

The average american consumer is completely confused about what is and what isn't healthy, that's for sure. Scare mongering is rampant.

Phillies broadcaster Rickie Ricardo told Sports Radio 94 WIP in Philadelphia on Monday morning that he delivered 100 Cuban pastries (two boxes of 50) to Chapman this weekend and when he saw the reliever in the clubhouse Sunday morning, Chapman had eaten about 18 of them. "He couldn't breathe!" Ricardo said. "I looked at my partner, I said, 'He's ripe for the taking today.'"
. . .
Ricardo said the pastry has a "flaky-crust ... with cream cheese and guava and it's baked, and it's absolutely delicious."

"Now, if you eat more than two of these you're clogging up your arteries -- you're a stroke waiting to happen," he joked in the interview, saying the pastries are the "equivalent of the Krispy Kreme donuts when they come right out of the oven, it's that kind of a thing."

Asked about Ricardo's story, Reds manager Dusty Baker dismissed the broadcaster's claim that the pastries were to blame for his closer's meltdown.

"That has nothing to do with what he did," Baker said, according to MLB.com. "Look at him -- does he look fat? I don't pay any attention to that. ...

Agree madvillian, the average person knows nothing about nutrition, and I used to be one of those people. Hell you can't really call a single food healthy, as it's the overall context of a diet that makes it healthy. That being said certain foods have more nutrients in them than others, so obviously consuming them and trying to get a lot of whole foods would be ideal, but there is nothing wrong with fast food either, it just tends to be not as filling as it's more nutrient dense counterparts, thus overconsumption. (Ok, there is one thing that is without a doubt bad for you in trans fat, but that is about it.)

For those of you who want some basic nutrition guidelines for what you should be consuming just try to get at minimum .4 times your target body weight in dietary fat grams and .8 times your target body weight in protein grams, filling the rest of your calories with any combination of fat/protein/carbs/alcohol. Carbs aren't essential, but are the bodies primary source of fuel, and it is recommeneded to get 15g of fiber (fiber can only be had via carbs) per 1000 calories, so if I had to guess the average BBTF'er should be getting at least 35g of fiber a day. The fiber will also ensure you are eating at least somewhat "healthy" foods. Also a good baseline of how many calories you burn can be found here http://www.wvda.org/calcs/mcals.php The recommeneded way of dieting down is using 20% less than that number, then use the guidelines above.

but there is nothing wrong with fast food either, it just tends to be not as filling as it's more nutrient dense counterparts, thus overconsumption. (Ok, there is one thing that is without a doubt bad for you in trans fat, but that is about it.)

I just saw an interesting study that measured "satiability " of various foods. Obviously most carbs scored poorly (french fries or potato chips) but the #1 rated food for knocking off the desire to eat for a while was a hamburger.

Something about the quality of the proteins and fats and other nutrients in ground beef shakes off hunger.

I try and avoid fast food but I have zero problem with wolfing down a hamburger or two from Wendy's on my way home from work once or twice a week. It delivers about 650 calories, a good 30-40 grams of protein, and fills me up. Yea it's a bit fatty and the bun is empty calories but as long as you eat a balanced diet a few hamburgers are fine.

People that are knee jerk against fast food are just being silly. Moderation people.

Interesting, as in general fat is the least filling nutritent per calorie to me. And I would argue that the french fries and and potato chips are every bit a fat source as they are a carb source, which goes with my above statement of fat being the least filling per calorie (partly because it is 9 calories per gram as opposed to 4 calories like protein and carbs). The most filling things for me tend to be lean protein and leafy greens (that fiber), I do know there was something done saying a potato was the most satiating food out there aka just potato and not any fat added like a french fry and chips. And in general foods that are water based give the feeling of fullness for obvious reasons.

All you people who can eat whatever you want and not gain weight...#### you. #### you. #### you.

That is all.

Gotta say, it's worth the opprobrium.

Still and all, this is America, so not being fat is a lonely business. I just got back from the supermarket and the only people with my body type were 20 years and more younger than I am. The women my age outweighed me by anywhere from 50 to 150 pounds.

Growing up, I was rail thin. I remember in high school weighing in for my physical at 5'11, 127 lbs. Over the next few years, I started to lift weights and fill out a bit, and by the time I graduated college, I was 5'11, 165 (still skinny according to most people). Over the next decade, I kept up a pretty steady eat-whatever-I-want and lift weights diet and my weight got up to 170-175, but never any higher. I cut regular soda from my diet (I come from a family of diabetics so it seemed prudent) and it didn't have any impact on my weight.

Then a couple of years ago, I started running and doing other serious cardio. I pretty quickly lost 10 lbs and am back down to 160-165. More recently, I cut my meat intake by about 50% and replaced that with a milk-based protein powder drink a couple of times a day. Hasn't affected my weight but my cholesterol is down about 30 points.

Anyway, my point is I'm clearly not the kind of person who overweight people should look to for dietary advice, but even for me, doing cardio 3-4 times a week helped me lose 10-15 lbs in relatively short order. Changing my diet never seemed to have much effect on my weight.

My father was 6-foot tall and weighed within 5 lbs of 180 from age 18 until 85.
After that, he had a harder time keeping up that number, but he kept it close in his last 7 years.

I was 4-11, 99 lbs entering HS and left it at 6-foot, 145.

Colleague told me that age 40 would bite me in the ass and boy was he right.
I didn't even own a scale, went on vake, got on one after a workout and - 203?

Weigh less than that now, but will admit that genetics as well as upbringing are not fairly distributed. So I have less of an excuse.

Then again, I am typing from a casino property tonight, on business and... wow, these people.... not sure it's just genetics and upbringing holding them back at this point. 60 yrs old, 9 pm, you weigh about 260, and you walk into a nice restaurant with an "ALASKA" t-shirt on with 20-yr-old sweat pants?

The irony is great here as you are just puppeting the scare mongering that goes on with it. Try reading the actual studies instead of googling and getting yahoo answer responses and people just throwing their opinion around like its fact. Do you also believe carbs are teh evil? Or that fat is bad for you?

What are you, a Fresca salesman? This quote from an epidemiologist sums it up well:

"Diet soda is not a health food. In fact, it's not a food at all, it's simply a slurry of chemicals, a number of which may have deleterious effects on the body."

It's not like drinking strychnine, but there are many other healthier choices one could make. Giving up diet soda (or, better yet, all soda) is going to have positive health benefits for many people. I'm one of them.

I weighed about 160 at both 18 and 25, and had the metabolism of a teenager. Ate like Adam Richman and never put on weight. After 25, I started putting on an average of a half-pound a month. Doesn't sound like much until you realize I'm almost 53...

Nowadays if I eat a cheeseburger I'm probably not eating for days. Though I'm probably shvtting for days. Then again when I get a burger I get a medium rare burger with cheese, bacon, mayo, lettuce, tomato, mustard, ketchup & a side of fries.

What are you, a Fresca salesman? This quote from an epidemiologist sums it up well:

"Diet soda is not a health food. In fact, it's not a food at all, it's simply a slurry of chemicals, a number of which may have deleterious effects on the body."

It's not like drinking strychnine, but there are many other healthier choices one could make. Giving up diet soda (or, better yet, all soda) is going to have positive health benefits for many people. I'm one of them.

There is no such thing as a "health food." There is foods that are more nutrient dense than others, but you need the overall context of the complete diet to consider something healthy or not.

The thing I was quoted was saying "there is nothing wrong with diet soda" which there isn't, I never proclaimed it some nutrient dense beverage.

About the only real negative to diet soda is the effect it has on your teeth.

There is no such thing as a "health food." There is foods that are more nutrient dense than others, but you need the overall context of the complete diet to consider something healthy or not.

The thing I was quoted was saying "there is nothing wrong with diet soda" which there isn't, I never proclaimed it some nutrient dense beverage.

About the only real negative to diet soda is the effect it has on your teeth.

All I know is this: line up 200 people, and let's say 100 of them drink several diet sodas a day and 100 do not drink any soda at all. Without any other information about these people, I would wager my house that the non-drinkers were a healthier group on average. And that's partly because, as you suggest, the overall context of the complete diet is what matters. People that drink crap are more likely to also eat crap.

For those of you who want some basic nutrition guidelines for what you should be consuming just try to get at minimum .4 times your target body weight in dietary fat grams and .8 times your target body weight in protein grams,...

So, if I'm aiming to stay at 160 lbs. I am to take in 128 grams of protein each day? That's way too much.

Then again, I am typing from a casino property tonight, on business and... wow, these people.... not sure it's just genetics and upbringing holding them back at this point. 60 yrs old, 9 pm, you weigh about 260, and you walk into a nice restaurant with an "ALASKA" t-shirt on with 20-yr-old sweat pants?

c'mon, man...

It's something, what some people consider dressing; that's for certain.

Actually, never gaining weight isn't always the best deal. It's so easy for me to eat crap that I can become very inattentive to the nutritional value of what I'm eating. I recently starting drinking a six pack of Sierra Mist a day, after a lifetime of not drinking more than one soda a week. That can't be good.

So, if I'm aiming to stay at 160 lbs. I am to take in 128 grams of protein each day? That's way too much.

No, it definitely isn't. If you are trying to stay at a current weight it would be damn near ideal. Furthermore, do you realize how easy it is to get 130g of protein a day in a diet? I bet most get that and don't even realize it. The protein requirement changes based on context too, if you are going into an aggressive dieting down while lifting I would recommend 1.2 times your target weight for example. If you are in a caloric surplus and sedentary is about the only time slightly below .8 would be ok, but even then I wouldn't and going below .65 target weight would be silly in my opinion.

Look at the username of the guy you're responding to! Of course he's defending diet soda.

Anyway, if two people at the exact same thing every day and one person had 12 oz of diet soda with every dinner and the other had water, the latter would undoubtedly be healthier. The only way for diet soda not to be unhealthy is if you compensate but eating healthier than you otherwise would. And like you said, people who tend to drink diet soda also tend to eat a lot of fast food and stuff.

also, i was never a soda drinker growing up, but having type 1 diabetes, i was actually turned onto it by my endocrinologist as a way to correct low-blood sugar. apparently, the carbonation in soda hastens the body's absorption of glucose, and i don't think the caffeine hurts either. i do try to stay away from corn syrup by getting mexican coke by the case from costco.

also, there is such a thing as naturally occurring trans-fats (i've usually found it in high-fat dairy-products) and they are not nearly as bad for you as artificial trans-fat.

i do try to stay away from corn syrup by getting mexican coke by the case from costco.

I'm not sure corn syrup is all that different from sugar.
A neighbor had some serious problems with kidney stones. Doc told him to lay off diet soda. I think he was drinking (a lot of) diet soda to stay a bit thinner. Just skip soda in general. Water's free (tap water) and carnbonated mineral water is good if you like the zesty effervescence.

I just got back from the supermarket and the only people with my body type were 20 years and more younger than I am. The women my age outweighed me by anywhere from 50 to 150 pounds.

I'm no kind of expert but it seems to me that the word "moderation" is the important one in choosing foods. Diet soda, fried chicken, skittles, whatever the hell you want is fine in appropriate moderation. What gets people in trouble is they make things a regular part of their diet.

I weighed within a few pounds of 150 for all of my adult life until I quit smoking 5 years ago... late last August I weighed in at 185. I'm 5'6" (used to be a little taller, but I turn 60 next week and find myself in full-shrink mode). I had never really educated myself about diet/nutrition/exercise, but for whatever reason(s) I decided it was time to do something to address my weight and fitness issues...

I bought a pedometer, a basic exercise bike, and a notebook. Of those three items, the notebook was far and away the most important 'cause I use it to keep track of what and how much I eat. I've always enjoyed cooking, so food quality was never really an issue for me - it was more a matter of my sedentary lifestyle and excess caloric intake. I made it a point to walk more, I did between one and two hours on the bike each day over the winter (plopped my laptop on a counter in front of the bike and watched cooking shows while I pedaled away), and, most importantly, I tracked every bite I ate. I was down to 160 by the new year and I weighed in at 151 this morning.

I feel a helluva lot better.

I haven't done fast food in several years, so that was never an issue for me... I've also cut out most of the processed foods that once had a place in my diet.

Maybe now it's time to take a serious look at a pair of inversion boots...

I like some diet sodas, but my preferred soft drink, a couple of cases a week, is seltzer. You can put a little lemon or grapefruit juice in the seltzer, or get some with lemon or lemon-lime flavoring, and you avoid the sweeteners and their effect (if that's a concern) altogether. I probably should get a machine and make my own, but I'm lazy, and seltzer is cheap.

Most people here are giving the advice I would give: don't make weird imbalances in what you eat; just eat less. I kinda do think people should eat more vegetables, but I'm not evangelical about it. I have a stock of 10-12 "top favorite" vegetable main-course recipes that I fix continually. I can't stand eating carrot sticks or raw celery, but give me a big bowl of ratatouille and I'm fine.

As to weighing every day, I'm with Voros. Whether you're trying to lose or maintain weight, it helps to know where you are; it prevents illusions and false assumptions. (I'm at 192 this morning :) Maintaining weight while increasing muscle is quite a different task from plain losing. They're different strategies for different purposes. I've never been able to gain much upper-body muscle, but at 50something my legs and joints are strong, and I want to keep them strong by not carrying around 20 extra pounds above the belt, whether it's fat or muscle. But others will have different goals.

A few posts ago someone asked about standing desks... I work for a large company and we were able to convince them to get some of us standing desks in our work area. I absolutely love it... I probably stand 60%-80% of the day and sit the rest. I love being able to stand up, stretch my legs, get the blood flowing. I honestly feel I'm more productive and get the added benefit of burning a few extra calories while standing. And having the improved circulation keeps me feeling more alert during the day and then after work as well... I'm more likely to go to the gym or go for a run immediately after work than I was when I was literally sitting for 8+ hours/day.

So that's my two cents... if they offered my a walking desk, I would jump on it in a second. Setting it at 1 or 2 mph would be awesome. I talk on the phone a lot and have to type a lot, so walking faster than that may make it difficult, but I would absolutely love to be able to walk or shuffle my feet throughout the day. The extra calorie consumption would probably be significant as well when spread out over 6-8 hours.

Oh and another thing... my wife had huge success using an app for her iPhone, MyFitnessPal. It works just like the notebook mentioned above but is in your phone. She could tell the app her basic activity level, her age/weight/height/gender... it estimates how many calories you then burn per day. You set a goal of losing a half pound or pound or whatever per week and it tells you how many calories you should be targeting.

You input what you eat and there is a huge database of products and their calories, including restaurants. So it's a great way of tracking what you eat, but more importantly for her, you also input your exercise and it will tell you how many extra calories you've burned. So she always felt like she had a choice to either watch the calories and keep it at her goal... or get some exercise in to earn some additional calories. It became a huge incentive for her to go to the gym and "earn" extra calories.

So long story short, if you like your phone apps and want something to help combine your eating and activity, there are some really good choices out there.

All I know is this: line up 200 people, and let's say 100 of them drink several diet sodas a day and 100 do not drink any soda at all. Without any other information about these people, I would wager my house that the non-drinkers were a healthier group on average. And that's partly because, as you suggest, the overall context of the complete diet is what matters. People that drink crap are more likely to also eat crap.

I cut pop - soda, 'coke' (for Sam), whatever - wholly out of my diet a few years back, and I felt noticeably better without making any other lifestyle/diet change. I am probably in the running for being the furthest possible thing from a health/fitness nut - I love a good burger, I can down an entire Chicago style pizza myself, and I drink like a fish - but eliminating just that one thing has been a boon... and it really didn't take long until I didn't even miss it.

The other big change -- I've also cut fast food out entirely.

With 40 fast approaching - in the last year, I've also started exercising regularly and finally decided that everything doesn't need to have "extra cheese"... but just ditching soda and fast food was a huge step for me and again, I say this as a one-time and still sometimes glutton - it's a step that's easier to take than you think and will have a bigger impact on your weight and health than you can possibly imagine.

As to weighing every day, I'm with Voros. Whether you're trying to lose or maintain weight, it helps to know where you are; it prevents illusions and false assumptions. (I'm at 192 this morning :) Maintaining weight while increasing muscle is quite a different task from plain losing. They're different strategies for different purposes. I've never been able to gain much upper-body muscle, but at 50something my legs and joints are strong, and I want to keep them strong by not carrying around 20 extra pounds above the belt, whether it's fat or muscle. But others will have different goals.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess...

I'm 6' with a fairly solid build, but I've been in the 'few extra pounds' category since HS. After college and I became more sedentary (and also able to pretty much afford to eat whenever I felt like it) -- the few extra pounds began to slowly add up. I don't know that I ever got to the point of being fat (I imagine by pure build/height/weight definition, I was probably 'obese') -- at least, I was always able to buy clothes off the rack at any given store -- but I was definitely making my way to the end of the rack.

Last year, I finally decided that it was time to get in shape... I really have no idea what I weighed -- and I'm terribly at estimating anything -- but I'm guessing I was probably around 240 lbs. I couldn't tell you what I weight today - but others say it 'looks' like I lost about 40 lbs.

For me - the best judge was was really pant size... At the point I decided to do something about it, I had just 'graduated' to a 40 waist... I'm back down to a 36 now, and would like to go to a 34 or so.

Using 'weight' just always seemed like a bad idea to me -- friends and family who go this route seem to always be fighting over spare pounds here and there or get frustrated when the number doesn't shrink (or even get to the point of taking water pills just to hit targets).

Like I said, different strokes for different folks, I guess -- but what worked for me was just getting the 'satisfaction' from the proxy effects... formerly snug clothes becoming too big/being replaced, having more energy, just generally feeling better. I tend to frustrate easily - so I think looking at a number on a scale would probably cause me to say "screw it, this isn't working".

Actually I have found that to be a great motivation and reward, too. I went from a 36 in 2003 to a 33 in 2005, and I'm at 33 today. (Black Wrangler jeans the whole time, for consistency.) It's just that waist size doesn't move quite as rapidly as pounds on the scale :)

Soda is a massive one - if you've ever seen the pictures of how much sugar is in your drink it will change your thinking about the whole thing in a big way. Would you eat that amount of sugar flat out? The amount that has to dissolve in to get that flavor is pretty crazy. It also hit me when I went to a farmer's market a few years ago and ordered a lemonade from a drink stand - it was all made from scratch in your cup, and seeing the amount of sugar they had to dump in there to even lightly sweeten it was amazing in a bad way. Same thing with sweet tea in the south and such.

I'm 6'5" and naturally pretty lean but did have to change my diet in my 20s. I cut out dairy and lost 10 pounds in an instant without changing anything else - I now eat small amounts and actually prefer the reduced fat cheese now after eating it for several years. In general eating healthy is habit forming like anything else - stick with it and soon it's what you'll want regardless. I prefer wheat pasta to the regular stuff now, the reduced fat cheese, I don't drink soda because it instantly dehydrates me, junk food makes my stomach hurt, I crave leafy greens, etc.

The most important thing besides diet is to get SOME cardio in. I go to the gym three times a week and hit it pretty hard, but even if you're just walking your dog twice a day that can be really huge. My parents got a dog a few years ago, started going on walks in the morning and then a hike on Saturday or Sunday, and saw huge health benefits.

EDIT: I personally never weigh myself because it becomes a point of obsession. I obsessed my way down to 203 a few years ago, which on my frame is gaunt, and almost literally couldn't go a pound lower. I'm probably now around 210-215 which is likely much healthier for me.

For a while I measured my efforts on the elliptical machine not in calories burned but in potential beer gained.

My step-sister (still slim well into her late 40s) has always measured things like deserts in "time on treadmill". As in, do I really feel like putting the time in?

The real key though is that it wasn't aspirational. If she decided to eat something that required a lot of time on the treadmill, she did it. Mostly though it was successful in helping her avoid weight gaining choices.

A dog is a huge responsibility. When our 15-year-old Australian shepherd passed away a couple of years ago, we didn't have much difficulty deciding that we aren't getting another dog. Been there and done that, so to speak.

But among the many terrific things about having a good-sized dog is that the dog will REQUIRE you to get up off the damn couch and go for a brisk walk. Every damn day. You can rationalize and make excuses and convince yourself to skip the elliptical, and the elliptical won't walk over to you and look you in the eye and ask, "Really?!?" The dog will INSIST that you get your flabby ass up.

My dog learned the closing music on the Giants' TV broadcasts. Once that closing music came on, she would eagerly walk over to my chair and stick her wet nose in my lap and firmly suggest that it's time for our evening walk, now.

My thought on weighing every day was more specifically for someone in my position: IE, someone in need of dropping substantial amounts of weight. My morning weigh-ins can change by as much as six pounds in just a few days, so the day to day numbers help establish a smoother trend and keep me from overreacting.

My thought on weighing every day was more specifically for someone in my position: IE, someone in need of dropping substantial amounts of weight. My morning weigh-ins can change by as much as six pounds in just a few days, so the day to day numbers help establish a smoother trend and keep me from overreacting.

Back when I did this, my mantra was "half a pound a week". I'd get so excited dropping several pounds in a few days, only to get depressed when much of it came back soon after. I learned pretty quickly to focus on the marathon, not the sprint. If I was losing one pound every two weeks, that's 26 lbs a year, and that was fine with me.

But the key thing was keeping track. Once I got complacent and stopped tracking my weight, it was easy to assume (wrongly) that I was still on the right path.

All I know is this: line up 200 people, and let's say 100 of them drink several diet sodas a day and 100 do not drink any soda at all. Without any other information about these people, I would wager my house that the non-drinkers were a healthier group on average. And that's partly because, as you suggest, the overall context of the complete diet is what matters. People that drink crap are more likely to also eat crap.

What else are the other 100 drinking? I would guess that the 100 drinking diet soda are healthier than those drinking regular soda or other sugary drinks, and maybe less healthy than those just drinking water, but who knows. In my opinion, the decision to not drink sugary drinks is the key one.